Global cooling for a decade, predict climate researchers according to an article in BBC News 1 May 2008. German researchers have developed a new computer model that predicts a decade of global cooling before warming up again. Their model includes data from a natural cycle of ocean temperatures called the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation, which seems to occur every 60 to seventy years. Patterns and cycles of ocean temperatures and ocean currents are poorly understood due to a lack of data and it is only in recent years that researchers have been able to make enough direct measurement from floats and buoys in the oceans. Noel Keenlyside of Leibniz Institute of Marine Sciences, Kiel University commented: "One message from our study is that in the short term, you can see changes in the global mean temperature that you might not expect given the reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)." The BBC article goes on to say, “The projection does not come as a surprise to climate scientists, though it may to a public that has perhaps become used to the idea that the rapid temperature rises seen through the 1990s are a permanent phenomenon. ‘We've always known that the climate varies naturally from year to year and decade to decade,’ said Richard Wood from the UK's Hadley Centre, who reviewed the new research for Nature.”

Editorial Comment: We are pleased to see that the BBC is finally catching up with us. If the public has become used to the idea that global warming is permanent, it is because the popular media have reported it that way, and have poured scorn on anyone who differed. Richard Wood’s comment reminds us that most climate changes are the result of natural phenomena. This is no surprise to us because Genesis tells us that until the end of the world there will be hot times and cold times. (Genesis 8:22)

The German research reminds us that there are many aspects of the natural environment that we still do not understand. This should be an impetus to do more research into the environment so that we can live with it as best we can, not an excuse for governments to hastily impose taxation schemes that are not going to change the climate in the long run. (Ref. meteorology, oceanography, modelling)